@Eli: this is cuz u r handset is subsidized by the carrier and that your cost per month includes the charges for the handset as well. With this new plan TMobile is giving the users an option to buy their own handsets and choose the cheaper plans or get the handset from them and pay the regular monthly price.

In comparison other carriers hide the cost of the handset by not providing the cheaper no contract option

These are actually regional plans. They attract an additional cost while roaming outside home networks.

That should just tell you that nokia is more flexible !

I agree, E 71 is a good option and with the recent Best Buy Promo you can get it @ $ 199 with a T-Mobile contract. Has email, wi-fi, 3G (read on for details), nice stable OS and a full qwerty kbd. Nice form factor and light weight as well. But no touch screen (not a big issue). Just a note though, the 3G bands are designed for ATT's network. Nokia also makes them with the regular world 3G band of 2100 but don't think they are sold here at Best Buys, also T-Mobile's 3G band is special and the regular E71 supporting 2100 wont work on it either. Thus you would be stuck with EDGE. But if you don't care about data, then you should be fine. Overall its a great phone

Need outlook support
get rid of the small bar at the bottom which has the call, home, end keys.
Make those soft keys on the touch screen itself
regular/worldwide 2100 Mhz 3G band

This looks good !

Do they cover devices just within the US ? if yes then only those handsets pushed by carriers would succeed in making the list ! As you mentioned the $80 price tag makes it real attractive over something like the Iphone or even the Palm Treo with a $500+ tag attached to it.

where do you get one from ? The att /apple website or from the store ?